District News Roundup

In response to a report by the New York City Board of Education
showing a 16 percent increase in crime in the public schools, the
district's chancellor has expanded a program of weapons checks and both
Mayor David N. Dinkins and his rival have called for additional
security measures.

In a campaign speech at the American Youth Hostel last week, Mr.
Dinkins proposed assigning one school-system security officer to each
of the city's 1,069 schools. He also promised to use federal money to
establish a school-safety trust fund that would be used to hire an
additional 1,200 city police officers to protect the public
schools.

He emphasized that the officers would function as role models and
not as guards. The Mayor said he "envisions them teaching young people
about respect and decency and the laws that hold our city
together.''

In another campaign speech, Mr. Dinkins's opponent in the upcoming
mayoral election, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor,
blamed the Mayor for the city's crime problem and proposed creating a
2-block "safety zone'' around each school.

A few days before Mayor Dinkins's speech, Chancellor Ramon C.
Cortines announced that new teams of security officers would visit 20
additional middle and high schools to conduct random weapons searches
once a week. Currently, such searches are conducted at 41 of the city's
135 high schools.

Mr. Cortines warned that these efforts would be only temporary
unless more funding can be secured.

A man fired 29 rounds onto a Wyoming school's football field earlier
this month, wounding four students before shooting himself.

The assailant, Kevin Newman, 29, died four hours later at a local
hospital.

Thirty-one students from the 550-student Central Middle School in
Sheridan, Wyo., were playing on the football field when Mr. Newman
walked onto the field with a handgun and a rifle and began shooting
indiscriminately. No students were killed.

Investigators discovered that Mr. Newman was recently discharged
from the Navy. A suicide note found in a Sheridan hotel room did not
indicate that he had planned to visit the school.

Three of the four injured students were sent home from the hospital
with minor injuries. The fourth was listed in fair condition last week
and was expected to be released shortly.

A team of school mental-health specialists and local psychologists
was counseling students at the scene within 15 minutes of the incident,
according to Russell Carlson, the superintendent of Sheridan School
District 2. He said the counselors would be on hand as long as they
were needed.

The county executive should be given the power to hire and fire the
school superintendent in Prince George's County, Md., an advisory
commission says.

The panel also favors shifting budgeting power from the school board
to the county executive.

In a report last week on government operations in the suburban
county outside Washington, the 27-member independent panel, headed by
former Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner, focused
outlining what the it sees as the failings of the county's schools. It
cited low achievement scores and low morale as justifications for its
recommendations.

Under the proposal, the school board would play an advisory role,
assessing school performance and "being an advocate for children,''
according to a summary of the report. The plan also calls for seeking
an end to court-ordered busing and for expanding the district's
magnet-school program.

The report highlights longstanding tension between the county
government and the school board. In a separate letter sent to the
school board chairman last week, Parris N. Glendening, the Prince
George's county executive, called for the ouster of Superintendent
Edward M. Felegy.

Mr. Glendening, who is expected to run for governor of Maryland next
year, said he supported the commission's plan. He contended that the
school system would "drift farther into mediocrity'' if Mr. Felegy's
stewardship continued.

Bonnie Jenkins, a school board spokeswoman, called the proposed
changes "purely political.''

The proposed governance changes would need the approval of the state
legislature.

Following the death of a student infected with the hantavirus, schools
in Fort Totten, N.D., were closed Sept. 16-17 so officials could insure
that the grounds were not inhabited by mice, which transmit the
virus.

Michael Smith, a 14-year-old boy who lived on the Fort Totten Indian
Reservation and had attended the high school there for only a couple of
days, died last month of pneumonia, and was later confirmed to have
been infected with the hantavirus.

The virus, which has killed at least 21 people in nine states, is
spread by inhaling airborne particles of urine, droppings, or saliva
from infected mice, according to health officials. It is not
contagious.

On the advice of a lawyer, officials of the Fort Totten schools
decided to close schools until students' safety could be assured.

"[The school closing] was just a preventative measure,'' said
Charles Guthrie, the superintendent of Four Winds High School, which
closed last week along with its K-8 counterpart, Tate Topa Tribal
School.

Mousetraps were set during the two-day hiatus, but no mice were
caught, and students returned to school Sept. 20.

The Indian Health Service distributed pamphlets to Fort Totten
residents on how to discourage mice from invading their homes, and
brought in professionals to teach local workers how to trap mice and
test them for the virus.

The Anaheim, Calif., school district has dropped its opposition to a
major expansion of Disneyland in return for $1 million and a package of
educational programs.

School officials in the district, which includes the popular theme
park run by the Walt Disney Company, had filed a state lawsuit seeking
to block expansion of the park. The $3 billion project, still in the
planning stages, would at least double the size of the attraction.

Six local districts objected to the plan, contending that their
schools' capacity would be overwhelmed by extra students from families
of additional workers at the enlarged park.

Five of the districts dropped their opposition when Disney offered
arts and educational programs, including a "Disney 500'' honors
society, tutoring programs, and mobile immunization vans.

The Anaheim city district held out and filed suit. In addition to
the $1 million settlement and the special programs, the district will
receive $1.2 million in state-mandated developer fees in advance,
rather than over the six years construction is expected to take.

Seeking to improve attendance, the Los Angeles Unified School District
has established a hot line for anonymous tips about students who are
truant from school.

Radio and television spots being aired locally encourage students,
parents, and community members to call the number if they suspect a
child is being truant.

The tips will be followed up by attendance-office staff members who
will provide assistance to the truant children and their families if
needed, district officials said.

The Georgia parole board has commuted a three-year prison sentence
ordered for a 17-year-old high-school student who was convicted of
stealing ice cream from a school cafeteria.

Citing a nationwide atmosphere of "mass hysteria'' over juvenile
crime, the board granted Dehundra Caldwell two years' probation and
ordered him to finish high school.

A parole is likely in 1995.

Mr. Caldwell, who is black, admitted taking $20 in ice-cream bars
from a freezer at the Upson-Lee Middle School in Thomaston on July 11.
A white state judge sentenced him to three years, prompting charges of
racism.

Under the parole board's order, Mr. Caldwell must maintain good
grades, stay out of trouble, and tutor another student.

A grand jury investigating the safety of students in the Walton County,
Ga., school system has recommended a review of all of the district's
disciplinary procedures, including those governing administrators and
teachers.

The county grand jury, which has the power under Georgia law to
investigate the operation of various government bodies, concluded after
two days of hearings this month that the district had more serious
problems than several reported fights between students.

In checking on how the fights were handled, the grand jury heard
parents voice frustration about dealing with the system and teachers
testify that they feared losing their jobs if they complained about
certain problems.

The grand jury concluded in a report that the district appears to
have serious problems with its hiring, firing, and transfer policies,
and that political concerns appear to harm education there.

In response, Superintendent Kenneth Cloud criticized the report as
lacking specifics to back its allegations and said the panel was not
representative of the people in the district.

Vol. 13, Issue 04

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